Nice to meet you, I'm a professional liar.

Nina Bawden

Writers are liars; it's an unavoidable fact. We seek to entertain our readers as much as possible, and while the truth can be stranger than fiction, it isn't always more exciting. Nina Bawden, a childhood favourite author of mine, said that 'All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story... They are terrible people'.

Of course, this is a particularly extreme view when looking at fiction, especially fantasy writing like mine. However, even these pieces can be intended to influence readers with allusions to politics or current affairs. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings trilogy and even children's books like Tove Jansson's Comet In Moominland are examples of this, both being heavily based on their respective authors' experiences of and views on war.

To look at this from another point of view, though, the views that shape those texts are in a way the truth of the authors' own lives, and this potentially adds something to them. Cheever's short stories, like The Death Of Justina, are revealed in his journals to similarly reflect the truth of his own life and of his inner thoughts. In this review of his journals from The Guardian, Geoff Dyer points out the many themes and images in his stories which are drawn from previous journal entries.

Writers, then, seem to be a strange paradox. We are pathological liars, manipulating reality and the events our lives for entertainment, while at the same time, we cannot help baring our most private truths and our most intimate beliefs to our readers.

Who Writes It Bloggy Style?

I still don't actually know what a writer is, never mind if I am one. I suppose now that I'm in my second year of a creative writing degree, a lot of people would consider me a writer, but I don't particularly feel like one. To me, writing has always been the easy option, the guilty pleasure.

When, somehow, I did well in all my A-Levels, I decided that I didn't want to be thrown out into the world of work. Instead, I signed up for a creative writing degree, because to me writing isn't work. I'm sure I'll end up spending most of my life putting off growing up and becoming a responsible member of society, and following my somewhat unrealistic dream was just a part of that.

I don't think it's possible to have a single definition of what a writer is, or why they write. Emily Dickinson, now considered one of history's greatest poets, was barely ever more successful than someone like me, and most of her poems were written in private. On the other hand, John Cheever, whose talents are similarly recognised, wrote professionally and publicly - he famously said "I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you can't do it alone".

The fact that these two polar opposites have both received such acclaim is a source of encouragement to me. It shows that the building of worlds and stories that I have always revelled in, and felt drawn to, can be both a form of art and a way of life, no matter why you write.